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Disney Animation: Trivia Fun, Part 2

Walt Disney Studios proudly presents its 50th animated feature, Tangled, which opened Thanksgiving weekend to rave critical reviews and a strong $48.8 million opening weekend, just short of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One’s second weekend haul of $49.1 million.

If you are like me and you grew up with the best of Disney dominating your movie shelf (The Lion King, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Bambi, etc), you may still have a hard time naming 25 of these animated films, much less all 50. Below is the full list of Disney’s Animated Classics, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Tangled, with trivia about each film.

Part 2 of 5 (The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad through The Aristocats)

Screenshot from Disney's The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)

11. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)

The two segments of the film are “The Wind in the Willows” (based on the story by Kenneth Grahame) and “The Legend of Sleepy Hallow” (based on the story by Washington Irving)

“The Wind in the Willows” segment inspired “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride”, a dark ride that was fully operational on Disneyland’s opening day in 1955 and which remains a featured park attraction, more than 50 years later

Mr. Toad’s obsession with motor cars in “The Wind in the Willows” is dubbed “Motor Mania”, which is the title of a popular Goofy cartoon released the following year

Screenshot from Disney's Cinderella (1950)

12. Cinderella (1950)

Cinderella’s Prince (Charming) is never named in the film, joining the ranks of Disney’s other nameless princes from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Beauty and the Beast (1991)

This was the first Disney film to have its songs copyrighted and published by the newly created Walt Disney Music Company

To keep costs down, live action models were referenced extensively by the animators, for as much as 90% of the film

Two direct-to-video sequels (Cinderella II: Dreams Come True and Cinderella III: A Twist in Time) were released in the 2000s, more than 50 years after the original

Cinderella’s Castle is a featured attraction at the Walt Disney World theme park and features a restaurant, Cinderella’s Royal Table, where park guests can dine with Cinderella and other Disney princesses

Screenshot from Disney's Alice in Wonderland (1951)

13. Alice in Wonderland (1951)

The film features characters and events from two different Alice books by Lewis Carroll: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1871)

The film wasn’t the first time Walt Disney adapted Lewis Carroll’s books. “Alice’s Wonderland” was the first in a series of 57 “Alice Comedies”, short films featuring a combination of live action and animation, created by Disney in the mid-1920s

A 60-minute edited version of the film was the first Disney feature to be shown on television in 1954 as the second episode of Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color (originally called Disneyland)

Kathryn Beaumont, who voiced Alice in the film, also voiced Wendy Darling in Disney’s Peter Pan (1953) two years later

The film boasts the greatest number of songs in any Disney animated feature, although most of the songs are only seconds in length

Screenshot from Disney's Peter Pan (1953)

14. Peter Pan (1953)

Bobby Driscoll, who starred in several of Disney’s live action films including Song of the South (1946) and Treasure Island (1950), voiced the character of Peter Pan, the first male to do so on film, and one of the few to play the role before Jeremy Sumpter in the live action 2003 film adaptation

The film marked the last time Disney’s “Nine Old Men” all worked together as directing animators on a Disney animated feature

Despite rumors that Marilyn Monroe was the live-action reference model for Tinkerbell, the reference model was actually the actress Margaret Kerry

The film inspired a 2002 sequel, Return to Neverland, and a series of direct-to-video spin-off films starring Tinkerbell

Screenshot from Disney's Lady and the Tramp (1955)

15. Lady and the Tramp (1955)

This was the first feature-length animated movie made in widescreen (2.55:1) and CinemaScope and the widest animated film Disney has ever produced

The character animation of the Beaver who frees Lady from her muzzle at the zoo was recycled as the Gopher in the short “Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree” (1966)

The film was named #95 on AFI’s “100 Greatest Love Stories of All Time”, one of only two animated films on the list, the other being Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (1991) at #34

Legendary recording artist Peggy Lee voiced four of the characters (Darling, Si, Am, and Peg), collaborated on the song writing, and sang four of the film’s songs, including the memorable “He’s a Tramp” and “The Siamese Cat Song”

Lady and the Tramp’s son Scamp starred in a long-running, spin-off comic strip series and the direct-to-video sequel Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure (2001)

Screenshot from Disney's Sleeping Beauty (1959)

16. Sleeping Beauty (1959)

This was the last fairy tale-inspired feature film produced by Walt Disney before his death, and the last before the Walt Disney Company returned to fairy tales with The Little Mermaid in 1989

The film’s musical score is based on Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty ballet

The film was the last Disney animated feature to used hand-inked cells

Princess Aurora is one of six Disney characters featured in the Kingdom Hearts video game as kidnapped “Princesses of Heart”, the others being Cinderella, Belle, Snow White, Alice, and Jasmine

Disneyland theme park’s iconic castle is known as Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, and a virtual walk-through of the castle was included on Sleeping Beauty’s 50th Anniversary DVD release

Screenshot from Disney's 101 Dalmatians (1961)

17. One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)

The film was the first Disney feature made using the more affordable Xerography technique to transfer drawings directly to film without the use of hand-painted cells, resulting in a scratchier, more angular style

The film inspired a 1997 animated TV series 101 Dalmatians: The Series which ran for 65 episodes and focused primarily on four puppies named Lucky, Tom Sawyer, Rolly, and Cadpig

Clarence Nash, the voice of Donald Duck (as well as Daisy Duck, Huey, Dewey, and Louie), also voiced dog barks in the film

Dodie Smith, the English playwright and novelist who wrote the novel on which the movie was based, said she got the idea when a friend of hers saw her nine dalmatians and remarked that “Those dogs would make a lovely fur coat”

Screenshot from Disney's The Sword in the Stone (1963)

18. The Sword in the Stone (1963)

Based on the legend of King Arthur and the 1938 novel by T.H. White, later published as the first book in The Once and Future King

This was the first Disney animated feature with songs by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman. They would go on to write for The Jungle Book (1967), The Aristocats (1970), Mary Poppins (1964), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) (among many others), as well as the song “it’s a small world” for the famous theme park ride of the same name

This was the only Disney animated film from the 1960s that has never inspired a TV series, direct-to-video sequel, or live-action remake

The character of Arthur was voiced by three different actors (Rickie Sorensen, and two sons of the director, Richard and Robert Reitherman), and the quality of his voice noticeably changes in some scenes

Screenshot from Disney's The Jungle Book (1967)

19. The Jungle Book (1967)

The film was released in October 1967, ten months after Walt Disney’s death

Baloo the bear, Bagheera the panther, Hathi the elephant, and Shere Kahn (“Tiger King”) are named after the Hindi words for their species

Verna Felton, who voiced an Elephant for the second time in this film, also voiced The Fairy Godmother in Cinderella (1950), Flora in Sleeping Beauty (1959), The Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (1951), and Elephant Matriarch in Dumbo (1941)

Several characters from the film, including Baloo, Shere Kahn, and Louie appeared in the Disney animated series TaleSpin, with Baloo as a pilot, Shere Kahn as an evil business man, and Louie as the owner of a nightclub

Screenshot from Disney's The Aristocats (1970)

20. The Aristocats (1970)

This was the last animated feature that Walt Disney personally approved and the first to be completed after his death

Monica Evans and Carolle Shelley who voice the goose sisters, Abigail and Amelia, also voice Maid Marian and Lady Cluck in Disney’s Robin Hood (1973) and the Pidgeon sisters in Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple on Broadway, film, and TV

In the lyrics of “Thomas O’Malley Cat”, it is revealed that the cat’s full name is Abraham deLacy Giuseppe Casey Thomas O’Malley

The Aristocats II, a direct-to-video sequel that began production in 2005, was canceled before its planned 2007 release